Railroad-tie.



No. 786,548. PATENTED APR. 4, 1905.

I. COPELAND.

. RAILROAD TIE. A PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP PT. 27, 1904.

spike.

Patented April 4, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

IRA COPELAND, OF NEWVTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

RAILROAD-TIE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Ifatent No. 786,548, dated April4, 1905.

Application filed September 27, 1904. swarm. 226,209.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IRA COPELAND, a citizen of the United States, and aresidentof Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State ofMassachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement inRailroad-Ties, of which the following, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, is a specification.

My invention relates to the wearing and spike-holding capacity of woodenties for railroads; and it consists in adding to the durability of thetie,both as to its wearing and spike-holding properties, by inserting inits upper surface a number of wood dowels, said dowels being placedwholly or partly in the subrail portion of the tie.

The object is to add to the length of time that the tie will maintainits usefulness. This object I attain by the means illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of adowel intended for use in connection with a spike, it being bored andprepared for insertion in the tie in position to receive therail-holding Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing a dowel prepared forinsertion in the tie in its subrail portion. Fig. 3 shows in verticalsection a dowel prepared for the insertion of a metal core and isintended to be placed in the subrail portion of the tie. Fig. 4 is aplan View, on a small scale, of a tie havinga single dowel locatedwholly in its subrail portion. The location of the rail is indicated bydotted lines. Fig. 5 is a plan view, on a small scale, of a tie having asolid dowel wholly in the subrail portion of the tie and havingspikedowels partly in its subrail portion. Fig. 6 is a plan view, on asmall scale, of a tie having two spike-dowels.

My improvement is applicable to railroadties made from all kinds ofWood; but is more especially desirable for those made from the softervarieties, cedar, pine, 8:0. Its object is to fortify the tie againstspike-pulling, spike-killing, and rail-cutting. By spikepulling I meanthe tendency of traflic to pull the spike upward from its normalposition. By spike-killing I mean the destructive etfects caused by theuse of inferior spikes and by improper driving and by the Wear and tearof traflic tending to enlarge the spike-socket, permitting the entranceof air and 'water and consequent rapid decay. By rail-cutting I mean theeffect of traffic tending to cause the rail gradually to depress itselfand wear its Way into the tie, thereby reducing the firmness with whichthe rail is clamped to the tie, which tendency acts with acceleratedspeed when once the effect is fully under way. The object isaccomplished by the use of dowelshollow dowels and solid dowels. Bothkinds are inserted in the ties in vertical bored holes. They are madesomewhat larger than the hole, so as to be forced into the tie much as abung is forced into a barrel or a cork into a bottle, thus making an airand water tight joint.

The bored dowel A should be of hard Wood with grain running vertically,so as to present end of grain at the surface of the tie when in place.Its length should correspond to the depth of the bored hole. Itsinterior spikehole should be slightly less in diameter than thethickness of the spike to be driven therein. These bored dowels areespecially designed to receive such spikes as are described and patentedin United States Patent No. 768,517, issued tome August 23, 1904:, butare also well adapted to receive others. When in service, a portion oftheir upper ends lies under the rail-flange and will tend to diminishrail-cutting, inasmuch as the end grain of its harder wood will wearmore slowly than the longitudinal grain of the softer wood of the tie.The spikes being driven into Wood harder than the wood of the tie givesthem much greater tenacity and much greater resistance to lateraldisplacement, thus prolonging the life of the tie, reducing cost oftrack maintenance, and increasing safety of transportation. The solefunction of the solid dowel B is to prevent rail-cutting, one or more ofthem being inserted in the subrail portion of the tie, much in the samemanner as described for the insertion of the hollow dowel. They shouldbe made of hard wood or metal or a combination of both. The wood of bothkinds of dowels may be improved by chemical treatment by methods whichneed not be described here.

' walls of its socket.

Ties may be dowelfortified by different methods. In the illustrations 1have shown three methods, viz: In Fig. at a solid dowel is shown, (inpractice more than one of such dowels may be used;) in Fig. 5 a soliddowel and two spike-dowels are used; in Fig. 6 two spike-dowels aloneare used. These dowels may be used in a variety of ways that willreadily suggest themselves to one skilled in the art of track-laying.The section view, Fig. 3, illustrates a dowel prepared for a metalliccore of about the diameter of an ordinary spike or of any desired size.I prefer to use for a core a metal rod having an oval section andadapted to be forced into the hole in the dowel, said hole being roundand having a diameter slightly less than the smallest diameter of themetal core, the said metal core to have its larger diameter parallel tothe length of the tie.

In some applications of the dowels to ties it may be useful to place aflat metallic plate between the lower end of the dowel and the wood atthe bottom of the dowel-recess.

The dowel A, as shown in the drawings, Fig. 1, is of wood, cylindricalin form, and is uniform in cross-section throughoutits length exceptnear its lower end where its cross-section gradually diminishes, thusforming a tapering portion whose uppermost diameter is slightly greaterthan the diameter of the hole in the tie designed for its reception andwhose lowermost diameter is slightly less than the diameter of saidhole, thus constituting a portion of the dowel having a functionpeculiar to itself and active during the process of being driven intothe bored hole in the tie, its function being first to allow the lowerextremity of the dowel to readily enter the upper end of the bored holepreparatory to being driven, then as the dowel is driven downward tocompress the wood fibers constituting the walls of the bored hole, so asto admit the main shaft of the dowel and make a perfect lit, withintense impingement between the harder wood of the dowel and the softerwood of the tie. This tapering and compressing lowermost portion of thedowel is common to all the different forms of dowels shown in thedrawings. The spike-hole in dowel A, Fig. 1, should extend through itswhole length for the reason that the grand object of the hole is toavoid doing violence to the wood of the dowel by cracking or splittingthe same, as would be inevitable in case the spike should be driven intoan unbored dowel. Driving a spike into a bored hole of proper dimensionswill simply compress the wood of the dowel without cracking or splittingthe same, thus giving great tenacity to the spike and increasing thetenacity of the dowel to the It greatly improves the texture of the woodof the dowel for its function without leaving openings therein for theadmission of water.

I claim 1. A railroad wooden tie fortified by one or more dowelsinserted wholly in the subrail portions thereof; substantially as setforth.

2. A railroad-tie dowel of wood, cylindrical in form and having across-section uniform throughout its length except a minor portion atits lower end where its section gradually diminishes, forming a taperingportion whose uppermost diameter is slightly greater than the diameterof the hole in the tie designed for its reception and whose lowermostdiameter is slightly less than the diameter of said hole, and having acentral hole, of circular cross-section, throughout its length, for thereception of a spike.

3. A railroad-tie dowel of unbored wood cylindrical in form and having across-section uniform throughout its length except a minor portion atits lower end where its section gradually diminishes, forming a taperingportion whose uppermost diameter is slightly greater than the diameterof the hole in the tie designed for its reception, and whose lowermostdiameter is slightly less than the diameter of said hole.

4. A railroad-tie dowel wholly of metal, cylindrical in form, and havinga cross-section uniform throughout its length except a minor portion atits lower end where its section gradually diminishes, forming a taperingportion whose uppermost diameter is slightly greater than the diameterof the hole in the tie designed for its reception, and whose lowermostdiameter is slightly less than the diameter of said hole.

5. A railroad-tie dowel of wood, cylindricalin form, and having across-section uniform throughout its length except a minor portion atits lower end where its section gradually diminishes, forming a taperingportion whose uppermost diameter is slightly greater than ber, A. D. a.

IRA COPELAND. Witnesses:

FRANK Gr. PARKER, JOHN BUoKLER.

